THIS looked like being a quiet evening over drinks and nibbles to launch the latest Yamaha CFX concert grand, a new piano among those to be offered to players in the Sydney International Piano Competition.

As it turned out, the CFX was subjected to one of the severest road tests a piano - or a pianist - could go through.

After polished performances of Beethoven, Ravel, Chopin and Liszt by Konstantin Shamray, British pianist Mark Gasser embarked on a spellbinding reading of Ronald Stevenson's epic Passacaglia on DSCH.

This encyclopaedic pianistic essay is built over a repeated idea based on the musical motif that Shostakovich carved out from his own initials: D, Es, C, H (corresponding to the German names for the musical notes D, E flat, C, B). Over the top Stevenson unfolds the entire Western musical tradition. Overlaid on the refrain is a sonata, a suite, a nocturne, several sets of variations and many other classical and folk genres, culminating in a triple fugue drawing together Shostakovich's motto with the notes of Bach's name and the Dies Irae plainchant.

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Gasser sustained engagement with its expressive purpose over its entire length, even in passages of the most demanding virtuosity.

With a wide spectrum of colours, he drew the listener into the details of this pianistic Everest with nuanced expressiveness, power and contrapuntal clarity.

This was a breathtaking feat of pianism, concentration and musical intellect, bringing a work of singular originality to vivid life.